I was really looking forward to travelling up to the North York Moors for the first round of the BMFA F3F Summer League. Unfortunately the weather has other ideas and a bit of rain in the area has forced the organisers to call it off. Probably a good thing from my point of view really as Clare is in hospital with a very sore back and I had organised for the Mother-in-Law to look after the kids. I'd have been 'in her pocket' forever!! Can't wait for the kids to be old enough to enjoy a day out in the freezing cold to watch Dad play with his planes! Hoping they will be interested in flying too, but we'll see! Here's hoping I can get the time off work for round 2 at Whitesheet in 2 weeks time! Also hoping to have my Willow 2 by then and ready to rock and roll with some brand new slipperiness. I've got most of the bits ready, just need an airframe!
The forecast leading up to this competition was indicating that we would be sitting in our cars for two days on Mickeys slope hiding from the cyclonic wind and staying dry out of the low cloud or CLAG!
Martin made the inspired decision to get permission from the National Trust to hold this years annual Winter League culmination on the dune slopes at Rhossili. What a fantastic call! The forecast was still looking decidedly damp and the direction of the substantial wind wasn't square on the slopes, but it was much better than sitting in our cars in the clouds!
Nearly 30 pilots met at the Sainsbury's car park at Macarthur Glen on Saturday morning and scooted west on the M4 to Swansea and then meandered through the Outstanding Gower Peninsular until we parked up at Rhossili. A quick check with the anemometer that the wind speed wasn't too high and we made our way down the hill to the beach. I can't vouch for everyone, but I was surprised at just how far we had to walk! I really didn't mind at all though because I was as excited as a kid in a Cadbury's outlet!! I haven't flown a low coastal site in years and it is one of my very favourite things to do in the universe!
I had preconceived ideas about the low slopes at Rhossili. I was expecting 10 - 15 foot dunes with a really narrow lift band. The dune/cliff was substantially higher than that. More like 50 foot plus and the edge was far more ripply than I was expecting also! It was definitely a learning experience though!
We got the course set up in almost record time (I obviously wasn't the only one excited!) and then sat around and waited for the wind to turn towards the slope and bring the direction within 45 degrees and into the 'legal for competition' range. This was a bit boring for everyone............ except one lucky sod. This lucky sod had left his transmitter in the hotel. The same hotel that he had just driven over an hour from to get to Rhossili. Lucky? not normally! On this occasion though, he managed to get back to his hotel, collect his transmitter and return to the slope in time for his first flight! That is why I reckon he is lucky!!
While we were waiting for Pe.. the wind to square a bit, we were all taking in the beauty of the amazing surroundings and quietly staining our underwear brown thinking about how we would manage to fly on a low coastal slope with a severely crossed and reasonably strong wind. And we also took a group photo (courtesy of Martin Newnham) before any planes were lost or broken!!
We drew a number out of the hat for the first pilot and Simon Thornton was first to go. I'm not sure of the time of day, but it was well into the afternoon. It didn't matter though because we were off and running! Simon's flight showed us two things. 1) it was crossed......duh! and 2) you could fly 10 laps and land safely after walking beyond the holiday letting.
Simon's time was a very respectable 58.02 and was only beaten by 4 pilots! The times in round one ranged from 92 seconds (not the slowest of the comp!) to 53 seconds by Mark Redsell with the vast majority of pilots recording times well over a minute. It was definitely a learning experience! Rich Bago just pipped me to second place in that round with 56.47 and I was 3 tenths behind him. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after that flight! Maybe too pleased? Mark Abbotts was the 4th pilot to beat Simons time with a 57.97.
I was really impressed with everyone's ability to learn and develop in what were very challenging conditions on a new slope. There were a couple of landing issues and no-one destroyed their plane on the slope (on day one)........ Result!
Round 2 saw the beginnings of the usual few cementing their leads and showing us all how to fly and manage the conditions. Mark Abbotts took the honours for the round with an excellent 52.55 and Ewan Maxwell flew a fantastic 55.8 to claim the 4th place! Greg Dakin and Simon Thornton were in 2nd and 3rd. I was dead last in this round with the slowest time of the weekend. It was actually one of my most rewarding flights I have ever had in a competition! The conditions were trying to make me crash or land on the beach and for 97 seconds I coaxed my fully ballasted Skorpion around each base and squeezed every last poofteenth of lift under her wings to stay aloft and finish the course! I rocketed through the leader board from 3rd to 18th in that round! The slope had just put me back in my place.
The conditions were still very marginal with a severely crossed wind for round 3 and Tony Livingstone took the win with a very smooth 53.14 and Ronnie Lampe pushing hard for 2nd with a great 55.83. I couldn't believe we hadn't had any rain by now! I love it when the forecasters get it wrong in our favour! Looking at the timing sheet I think I can see that the slight variability in conditions made a significant difference in the achievable times. If the wind was bouncing around the legal limit of skewiffness the times were pretty dramatically effected. If they were bouncing around just inside the afore mentioned legal limit, and flown very well, mid to low 50's were achievable.
These couple of F3F runs by Joel West and Mark Abbotts should give you an idea of the conditions!
Unfortunately I didn't get many runs on Video. I was too busy flying, launching, talking and enjoying the spectacle!
Round 4 saw the wind drop a little and swing around towards the west and square up a bit. There was still some variability but the improvement in times overall was significant with times in the 40's now achievable!
The Top 5 times were all sub 50 and saw Pete Gunning take the round with a 46.15, Joel West in 2nd with 47.50, Daniel Schneider all the way from Germany in 3rd with his Polish Repect and a time of 48.58, Mark Redsell in 4th with 49.11 and Mark Treble in 5th with his Toxic and 49.17.
The final round for day 1 was the 5th round and we started 10 minutes before the last round in progress time of 1730. It was going to be a push to get back to Bridgend in time for our curry, but I reckon it was worth it! The conditions were nicer again with the WSW breeze creating plenty of lift to play in. The majority of the times for this round were under a minute with Simon Thornton grabbing the fastest time by a stretch with a 43.87 and snatching the day 1 lead from Mark Redsell. Joe Cubitt took second in the round with a very nice 49.96 with his Vampire (what a fantastic looking plane! Glider porn!) and Rich Bago took 3rd in the round with a 50.50. Pete Gunning Ended the day in 3rd pace after posting a 50.65 to take 4th in the round. Greg Dakin and Mark Abbotts finished day 1 in 4th and 5th place respectively with some excellent flying all day.
I had managed to claw my way into 14th place at the end of round 5 and was hoping to continue the trend on day two ....... if the weather played nice. It was looking wet! Could the forecasters be wrong two days in a row?!?!? Don't be ridiculous!
Who would take the trophy??
After a late curry at the Natraj in Bridgend and a quick nap, we met at Rhossili on Sunday morning at a very respectable 10am to get day 2 underway. Yes the forecasters were wrong again!
Due to the shift in the wind we set up the course a bit closer to the carpark end of the beach and were underway with round 6 sharpish!
Not much time for cuppas, socialising or photos! but I managed a few (they could have been from Saturday, who knows?)
Rich Bago was the lucky man to be first up in each round on Sunday. The Wind was pretty much square on with a few gusts from the WSW to give some inconsistency and the strength of the breeze was much less than predicted (as it was also on Saturday) so we were in for a pretty technical day.
Simon Thornton and Mark Redsell started as they meant to go on with both times in the 38 second bracket and Simon taking fastest time of the competition with a 38.33 for the round win and Mark in 2nd with 38.64. Daniel Schneider switched to his Radical Jazz for day two and got under way with a 3rd place and 40.15 with Greg Dakin and Peter Gunning right on his tail. I had a great start to the day with the first of my three 7th place rounds and a 45.43. I had decided on day 2 to force myself away from the edge a little and to aim to fly a little higher. So I stood right out on the edge and only had to duck a couple of times! It seemed to work for that slope quite well.
Round 7 saw Joel West take the honours with a 39.87 and his first attempt in a comp at EM style turns. He was saying that he was resisting using EM as he doesn't want to develop any bad habits when he is doing his very impressive and effective reversals. However he relented as he realised that reversals just weren't working at Rhossili in those conditions. It was an impressive flight to say the least! Mark Redsell claimed second spot with a 40.05 and Greg took third with 40.50. Rich Bago and Graeme Mahoney took 4th and 5th. Graeme Mahoney, Tony Livingstone, Martin Drewett and Andy Burgoyne are my current targets to beat in any competition. They always fly impeccably and are a great target to aim at (on the results table, not on the ground or in the air!). My second 7th placed round and my fastest time of the comp with a 43.29 had me in the mix again and on point for beating the crew and I was just behind Tony and Graeme.
Daniel Schneider took the 8th round with a time of 42.99 with Mark and Simon right behind him with 44.04 and 44.52. Mark Abbots, Graeme Mahoney and Greg Dakin were all within a second and Graeme had pulled further away from me compared to my 12th place (50.51).
Round 9 was won by Simon Thornton as the only pilot to go sub-40 with a 39.19, Greg (43.01) and Joel (43.51) were 2nd and 3rd with Mark R, Rich and Pete taking the next three places. I'm wanting to finish typing now and my memory is fading! I'd really like to mention everyone that took part as I'm sure everyone has something memorable to take from the comp. Sorry that I can't!
The Final round saw Rich Bago (43.64) take the round win with Simon Thornton (43.82) second, had he done enough to take the title? Pete Gunning (44.28) was third and Joel West (45.88) 4th with Mark Redsell (46.28) 5th, Greg Dakin (46.45) 6th and myself (47.59) in 7th. Who won? Did I beat Tony and Co.?
As the last pilot landed, we got the course down and lugged the gear back up to the carpark (Gets the heartrate WAAAAAY up!!) and waited for the results and trophy presentations.
We had much squarer conditions on Sunday and I was surprised to see that there were quite a few mishaps both on the slope and while landing. Due to the crossed wind on Saturday our brakes had more to bight into so landing was definitely easier, not sure what caused the issues for some on the slope though, maybe it was that we could fly faster? Maybe it was issues in the planes?
An honourable mention has to go to Les Wood. He had a torrid comp! he flew 3 rounds on Saturday and managed to de-commission his 2 gliders so sat out the rest of the competition. He came back on Sunday and manned the base A buzzer for ages and did heaps of launching. Thankyou very much Les! Mark Treble had a disgustingly horrible Sunday. His Toxic tried to bury itself in the face of the slope and his Needle tried to do a rolling landing (the rarest of all aerobatic manoeuvres!!) and finished with a very accurate impersonation of a Lawn Dart! Not a great day.
Martin Drewett did a fantastic job as buzzer supremo all weekend. Really appreciated it!
Joel's left arm must have been aching on Monday as he tirelessly flung model after model towards Ireland! Thanks mate! Great chucks!
Andy Burgoyne and Martin Newnham were splendid in the centre as our CD's and I'm sure everyone would agree with me that the organisation and running of the event was outstanding and a massive thanks goes to Martin Newnham for his effort, organisation and enthusiasm!
Big thanks to Peter Gunning and Adam Richardson for the trophies too, they look fantastic and can't wait to try to get my name on it next year!
I can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, but Keith had us all staring in awe and amazement at his impression of a 'crow-through' for a re-flight. Some would say senior moment, but this senior had the last laugh as he took the trophy for the first placed 60+ pilot! Congrats Keith!
Greg Dakin quietly had an outstanding competition to take third place. Congrats Greg!
Mark Redsell did all he could to take the title of Champion of Champions but had to settle for a very well deserved second place. Congrats Mark!!
Simon Thornton and his Shinto showed us all how it was meant to be done and was our well deserved Champion of Champions! CONGRATULATIONS SIMON!!!
I had a fantastic weekend. and finished the competition in a very pleasing 9th position! One place back from Graeme and ahead of Tony, Andy and Martin D. Andy (CD) and Mart (Buzzer Supremo) had some official duties to help distract them but I'm still pleased with myself!!
I also have some exciting news! I will be steering a Willow2 around the courses across the UK and Europe (German Open at Rugen) for the season!! I will hopefully have it ready for round 1 of the BMFA Summer League on the 12th of April at the Hole of Horcum, but it's more likely that I will have it ready for the second round at the end of April at Whitesheet.
From what I have seen of the second iteration of the Willow, it looks like it has some great potential and I can't wait to put it through its paces!! Thanks Ian!! They are available through T9 Hobbysports.
If you'd like to see the complete results for the Champion of Champions event, check out the GBSRA website under the results tab or email me and I'll flick you a copy.
The culmination of the frozen-fingered, snotty-nosed fun we call the F3F Winter Leagues is happening this weekend in Wales. The Champion of Champions. I've actually managed to qualify on merit through race results and available pilots filling the 5 available places per league! Thought I was going to have to beg! The conditions are looking pretty epic provided we can get to some slopes with visibility. Really can't wait. I'm so excited that I spent all last weekend painting my gliders' wings and each evening this week with T-cut to make them smooth(er than they were!) and shiny! Hope it makes a difference to their slipperiness! I ran out of green and found that I couldn't spray the 2K clear so I've done what I could with what I had. Should look OK at 50m or so!
I also replaced the V-tail half on the F3B Skorp and changed the v-tail servos on the DSL Skorp so have two angry beasts waiting to be blown around by some near cyclonic winds! I've also ordered some Tungsten Ballast to bring my all-up weight to just short of the FAI max loading of 75dm2. Unfortunately that won't be here for a month or so. I have managed to borrow some lead ballast for this weekend thanks to Dave Woods who has generously let me scab some from him. Stainless Steel is just too light! Excited to see the other 30 blokes and see some epic flights and times! One of the best bits of a two day comp is always the meal on the Saturday night. Look out Natraj!! I'll let you know how it went next week!!
I've only just recovered after a fantastic, very full, day on the Wrecker for the final round of the Welsh Winter League for this winter. It has to be said that it was a little bit chilly. We managed to get 17 rounds flown with 12 pilots all wearing themselves out and flying two rounds for each flight with a 'crow through' to launch the second round. We got the course up straight away and after a pilots briefing in a nervous Australian accent Ron Broughton got us underway with a 60" DS Plank which was scooting along really well. I was a bit perplexed to have found out just before my first flight that the elevator half on the right was sticking on one of my Skorpions leaving me to try to make it through the day with only one plane, ballasted to the hilt and landing aggressively in the usual landing area over the road. I managed to start with 2 rounds in the hallowed sub-40 bracket and was quite pleased with myself. I nearly made it all day without damage. Nearly.... After my gentlest landing, one of the tailplane halves dislodged itself leaving me to sit in the centre for the last 4 or 5 rounds. Inactivity makes the cold SO MUCH WORSE and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day. My fastest time was a 37.53 and my best flight was a 40.81 with a cut and recovery, which could have broken my personal best of 36.19 . Oh well, them's the breaks. The ever-generous Andzej Tabero kindly offered for me to continue flying the competition with his Ceres, but I declined as I've already broken at least one of his planes in the past! It was awesome to see Andrzej competing again after some health issues and it was great to see a smile on his dial! He did try to get the most value for his entry fee with some interesting flights! His best from the comp was an outstanding 38.72! The standout pilot for me from Sunday was John Treble who managed to smash his PB with excellent flying and trot into the sub 40 club with a 38.38!! Well done John!! Simon Thornton, Joel West and Martin Newnham were all on top form all day and every flight was exciting to watch and the times being delivered were astounding! Martin's fastest time, flying a Freestyler, was 32.41 with nearly every flight a sub 40 and the majority around 35 seconds! Joels fastest time, also with a Freestyler, was an awe-inspiring 31.60 with every single round below 40 seconds leading to a very narrow victory over Simon Thornton. Simon flew flawlessly all day and just missed the fastest time of the competition with his Shinto screaming around the course in 31.63 seconds leaving Joel with the fastest time by 0.03 seconds! Huge congrats to Joel for the fastest time of the day and for winning the final round of the Welsh Winter League. Had he done enough to snatch the Winter League Title from Simon Thornton and the absent Greg Dakin? I'll let you know in a bit. It was the first experience of 'crowing through' for a few of the pilots on Sunday and I saw some interesting versions of eye level and full crow deployed! The middle order was a hard-fought affair with Mark Abbotts, Martin Drewett, Tony Livingstone, Graeme Mahony and Andy Burgoyne finishing the day with only 700 points covering the group. Mark managed to fly his SRTL for a couple of rounds and scored a couple of sub 40's with it, then reverted to his Caldera's as the juices were flowing and he wanted to go faster. He managed to win one of the rounds and his best time was 32.23! Graeme Mahoney had an outstanding day and was next in the middle order (5th). He decided half way through the comp that he would learn to do reversals and flew them amazingly well! His best time was 35.39 and he also won a round! Tony Livingstone found a style that worked for him that I'd like to call a Flat EM style, although others might call it bank'n'yank'! It did work really well and yielded his fastest time of the comp with a 35.65. Andy Burgoyne had the dubious honour of flying directly after me. Unfortunately this meant he flew in the rain quite a few times but he flew the wings off his Radical (not literally!) and his fastest time of the comp was a very respectable 37.64 Hats off to everyone. The day was a great success and wouldn't have run so well without all the help we received. Special thanks to Andrzej for running the competition with me and to Graeme for being Buzzer Supremo and collecting the fees. Thanks also to Ron Broughton for tirelessly sitting on Base B for the majority of the day after packing his model away after 4 rounds. Everyone helped to carry, erect and dismantle the course so thank you all. So........ who won the prestigious title of Welsh Winter League Champion for this year? A huge, full blooded, heartfelt congratulations to Simon Thornton for fending off Joel West and Greg Dakin for the title! It was incredibly tight in the end with what is commonly known in my homeland as a 'Poofteenth' between the places! I was too cold to take any pictures, although Andrzej has taken some and written an excellent report on Welsh F3F. Well worth a look! Roll on the Ken Philips Trophy and the BMFA Summer League!!
Mike Young and Shane Biddlecombe were synonymous with the Bwlch for quite a while and this vid is, in my opinion, their best. Being a bit old (technologically speaking) the picture quality isn't what you might be used to now, but the footage is outstanding! Enjoy!
Actually, most of Mike's videos are well worth the effort to watch! Check out his channel. I'm not sure if Mike and Shane will get the glider bug again. I sure hope so, I'd love to fly with them again!
On arrival at the Bwlch 12 of us were
greeted by departing clag and a breeze that would have worked on the Wrecker. It
was starting to swing south as the forecasts had predicted so we made the
decision to move to the Crest as this should give us the best chance for
getting the most rounds in. It is the longest walk at the Bwlch,
made even longer by going all the way around to the SE slope after stopping at
the usual spot to watch the wind cease to blow, which was a little
disheartening.
The weather couldn’t make up its mind and
after a false start was spoiled by low cloud we were treated to some epic sports
flying Dakin style and I had a bit of a play under the fluffy ceiling too.
Tony
Livingstone got us back under way with a cracking, round winning, 44.45. Tony
wasn’t overly pleased at being first off today (no-one ever is, strangely!),
but I’m sure a round win in the first round made it feel a little better. After
a superhuman effort to come over from Switzerland for todays comp, Stefan
Bertschi found himself planeless after suffering some control issues resulting
in a heavy landing. He was to sit in the middle for rounds 2, 3 and 4.
Round 2 had the best conditions of the day
with Simon Thornton taking the win and fastest time with a rapid 38.06. I also
got my fastest time of the comp in round 2 with a blistering 49.15 and my only sub 50. Not my best day, more work
required.
Tony smashed everyone in rounds 3 and 4
taking the fastest times for both but the chasing pack wasn’t ready to give up.
Simon was still hot on his heels and Martin Newnham is never too far away. Greg
Dakin and Graeme Mahoney were also well and truly in the mix too.
The wind started to properly die during
round 5. That didn’t stop Graeme from taking the first of his round wins. Les
Wood was starting to come to terms with the Crest after a nervy start and
Stefan had managed to organise a ‘time share’ wing joiner to replace the
Radical one he had left in the warmth of his humble home. I’m sure there is a
massive thankyou to Andy Burgoyne for the loan and a collective sigh of relief
that it took 3 rounds to organise as he was never too far away from the fastest
time of each round.
Round 6 was horrible. Ian Mason and Les suffered the brunt of the cruddy air
with scarily slow runs that unfairly stayed legal with regards to wind speed
and we had a short break after Ian’s flight to let the breeze regroup before completing
the round and letting Graeme take his second round win.
Andy Burgoyne finally got some decent air
under the wings of his glider and posted a very respectable time that was
pipped at the post by Martin Newnham with the round win a Graeme with second in
the round. I flew straight after Andy and got the post thermic, dead air for
yet another slowest time that was nearly 30 seconds slower than the fastest.
Stefan took the 8th round and
did some grounds keeping along the way with a trouser-browning moment removing
some grass from the slope edge! Made me giggle like a nervous schoolkid! John
Treble had his best round with a very well flown 48.27 and his fastest of the
day, getting right in the midst of the usual suspects and leading pack.
The penultimate round saw Stuart Wallace
take the cake with a brilliant 48.48, a miserly 2 tenths ahead of Martin with
Simon in third and the conditions were starting to deteriorate somewhat. The
final round saw the conditions fall to almost nothing by the end and 12 grateful
pilots called it a day after Les had his best round result with 3rd and Martin
took another round win.
Massive thank you to everyone that helped
to get the competition to run smoothly, especially those that helped with the
course carriage and er… ere….. erec…. Putting up and down, everyone for buzzing
more than their fair share, Stu for taxing everyone and to Martin and Stefan
for helping out in the centre.
Huge CONGRATULATIONS to Simon Thornton for
the narrowest of wins over Martin Newnham and Graeme Mahoney. A very deserving
top three.
Full results below: (spreadsheet available on GBSRA website)
The forecast was looking excellent during the week for a brilliant day of practice and sports flying for Saturday on the Wrecker. Clear skies, 15mph wind smack-on NE and a beautiful 0 to 2 degrees Celsius/Centigrade (bbbrrrrr).
I let people know via the BARCS forum that I'd be there with the F3F course that anyone could join me for a sports fly and possibly have a practice session. The idea of the course on the slope may have kept everyone away because I was forced to endure a full day flying by myself!
The wrecker works quite well in a NNE, which was what I was provided with, instead of the NE.
The VR slope also worked pretty well and I used them both, seeing as I had the space.
The clear skies didn't really appear straight away either.
Full ballast was the order of the day to start with and the F3B Skorp was ripping around. A modified reversal turn (I think i'll call it the Inverse Reversal!) was working the best for me and I couldn't get a good rhythm for any decent EM type turns.
I spent ages playing with differential and snapflap and then popped the brakes on as a precursor to landing......... bloody thing nearly looped and even full down elevator only just held it level. A bit of practice putting full down elevator just before flapping it up and I was able to control the unruly beasty and get it safely back to the deck.
The DSL had been given a healthy dose of reflex during the week and was a totally different plane to fly, she is no longer the ugly stepsister. Even though the need for ballast was gone as the wind had all but died, the DSL really surprised me and I think it flies really well even without snapflap (accidental discovery after a crow-through!).
As the wind died down, the sun came out and the afternoon session was just a real pleasure to be up on the Bwlch.
Next Sunday is the 4th round of the Welsh Winter League F3F and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope the conditions are epic................. actually just flyable would also be nice!!
